Sharon Osbourne says Piers Morgan is only controversial ‘to get a reaction’ and he loves the attention after Ewan McGregor feud

The Good Morning Britain host's longtime pal stuck up for him after he caused a frenzy with his views on this weekend's Women's March - which caused Hollywood star Ewan to cancel his stint on yesterday's show

Revealed

By BETH ALLCOCK, Showbiz Reporter

25th January 2017,10:43 am

ATTENTION-SEEKING Piers Morgan deliberately sparks controversy with divisive comments on everything from the Women’s March to insisting some females should be forced to wear heels to work simply to “get a reaction”, according to close mate Sharon Osbourne.

The X Factor judge – who worked alongside Piers on America’s Got Talent – stuck up for her long-time pal after his negative views about the all-girl protests this weekend caused Hollywood actor Ewan McGregor to cancel his scheduled appearance on Piers’ breakfast show, Good Morning Britain, yesterday.

The Trainspotting 2 star sent the show into chaos after he stormed off at the last-minute over the presenter’s opposition to the anti-Trump Women’s March.

Scot Ewan was due to chat about his latest film but instead sent out a Tweet which read: “Was going on Good Morning Britain, didn’t realise @piersmorgan was host. Won’t go on with him after his comments about #WomensMarch.”

Today Piers again fired up viewers who branded him “sexist” and demanded he try to wear stilettos after he claimed some employers should have the right to tell staff how to dress.

The Hollywood star was offended at Piers’ views on the marches this weekend

Yet reality star Sharon insisted his comments should be taken with a pinch of salt and told viewers of her US talk show The Talk: “He says this stuff to get a reaction. I know Piers very, very well. This is what he does.

“He loves the attention. Naughty Piers! I know you don’t believe what you’re saying. He doesn’t. He adores women.”

Piers, 51, controversially tweeted his opposition to the anti-Donald Trump marches on Saturday.

Today he opened GMB with a two-minute monologue revealing his sheer “disappointment” at Hollywood star Ewan’s no-show and added: “He thought the Women’s March was a fantastic thing, I thought it was flawed and I explained why.

“I’m totally supportive of all women’s rights and equality – didn’t really see that this march was focused, I saw it more of a Trump thing.

After the show, he seemed to prove Sharon’s words and gleefully post on his Twitter page: “BREAKING: Highest 5-minute ratings period on @GMB yesterday came when @mcgregor_ewan failed to appear on the sofa. Thanks, Ewan!”

Yet Piers’ BFF Sharon seemed to face a struggle to convince her American audience.

Her fellow panellist and actress Aisha Tyler refused to accept “attention seeking” as a reason for his comments, saying he needed to be taught “how democracy works”.

She responded: “I’m offended…I just don’t think he understand American democracy and our constitutionally protected right to assemble and have free speech and I think when he comes here, we’ll explain how democracy works.”

This morning, Piers was determined to give his side of what he sarcastically called a “fun day” after yesterday’s drama.

Before launching into the news headlines, as he sat alongside Susanna Reid and Charlotte Hawkins, Piers said: “Ewan McGregor is a major star, he’s perfectly entitled to have his opinion about politics.

“I’m entitled to mine.

“He thought the Women’s March was a fantastic thing, I thought it was flawed and I explained why.

“I’m totally supportive of all women’s rights and equality – didn’t really see that this march was focused, I saw it more of a Trump thing.

“We should all be able to have different views.

“I’d have respected him more if he came here, sat down and went ‘you are wrong about the Women’s March’.

“We could have had an adult conversation about it – we weren’t going to ask him about it, we were going to talk about his movie that he was here to promote.

“So I hope that people who watched that yesterday shared my disappointment that he didn’t actually just come out and have that conversation.

Clearly intent on making his views crystal clear he added: “It seems to me the whole Brexit and Trump stuff is so extreme that no one can even raise a flag of this might not be quite right, or let’s bring together, there’s too much extremity about all this and it all angers people because they don’t agree with them.

“That’s all I want to say about it – let’s not bang on about it

“But I was very disappointed he did what he did. He let down the viewers and he let down himself.”

Yesterday Piers also branded Ewan a ‘paedophile lover’ in his column for the Daily Mail.